SanDisk Extreme Pro with USB 4 review: Good for Mac, avoid for Windows
SanDisk's Extreme Pro SSD has been recently updated, adding USB4 connectivity. It's a good, but expensive, external option for Mac owners assuming you never need to connect it to Windows.
SanDisk Extreme Pro with USB 4
It's safe to say that content creators and others who work in video are very familiar with SanDisk's range of external drives. The SanDisk Extreme range is well known, in part for having its built-in lanyard attachment point in the corner for hooking to a carabiner or a keychain.
The range also includes a Pro line, which offered a very similar concept, but with considerably faster storage -- just not really for Mac.
A few years down the road, SanDisk has revamped the external drive. The SanDisk Extreme Pro now uses USB4, which promises to make accessing data stored on it even faster.
On Mac, at least.
SanDisk Extreme Pro with USB4 review - Physical design
If you're familiar with the previous version, there's not a massive amount to talk about here. It's an external drive with the dark grey and red highlight aesthetic used in the earlier version. That red is a streak looping around the top corner hole, which makes a return in this iteration, as well as the outside edge.
Underneath its silicone exterior is an aluminum chassis for strength. Just as before, that corner hole is designed to be actually used, and not just a bit of decoration.
That case is still hard-wearing, with it having IP65 water and dust resistance, and drop protection at up to six feet. The operating temperature is also quite generous, with it working between 5C and 45C.
SanDisk even includes a five-year limited warranty.
SanDisk Extreme Pro with USB 4 review: The rear view, complete with regulatory logos.
The front continues to have a grippy pattern, this time of a diagonal ridge, interrupted by the SanDisk logo in the middle. It's a bit of a departure from the previous version's appearance, but not by much.
Around the back, the silicone exterior continues with a relatively flat section, showing the logo again as well as a serial number, product name and description, and regulatory information.
At 5.5 inches long, 2.7 inches wide, and 0.47 inches thick, it's a little bit bigger, wider, and thicker than the previous model. This would be an issue if you have a stack of the previous drives and want continuity, but it's not a problem for anyone who just uses one external drive.
SanDisk Extreme Pro with USB4 review - Speed and connectivity
The big change this time is the connectivity. While the previous model used USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 with its base-mounted USB Type-C connection to the Mac at 10 gigabits per second on Mac and iOS, or 20 gigabits per second on Windows, SanDisk instead now uses USB 4.
The change in technology means a considerable jump in speed. This means it can work with not only USB-C connections that work at 3.2 speeds, but also connections with Thunderbolt 4 support, like Apple's latest Mac releases.
SanDisk Extreme Pro with USB 4 review: The rear view, complete with regulatory logos.
The data sheet for the drive says its interface is USB4 Gen 3x2, with a maximum bandwidth of 40Gb/s.
The old drive was claimed to have sequential read and write speeds at 2,000MB/s apiece -- but not on the Mac, as the Mac doesn't support 20 gigabit USB-C 3.2. For the latest version, SanDisk markets it as having read speeds of up to 3,800MB/s, and writes at up to 3,700MB/s.
Our testing mostly bore this out, on the Mac at least. On the test bed M1 Ultra Mac Studio and a M4 Pro Mac mini, peak speeds were about what the manufacturers say they were.
But, we couldn't consistently get this on Windows machines. In some cases, while it would say it was connecting at 40 gigabits per second on a Microsoft Surface Thunderbolt 4 dock, it would only reliably transfer at about 10 gigabits per second.
In another case, on a Lenovo 14-inch ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13, it connected at USB 3.0 speeds across multiple cables, and the drive being connected to the Thunderbolt port.
And, regardless what test platform we used, it disconnected from a Windows host a lot.
We're not sure if this is the known-sketchy Windows support for Thunderbolt or a SanDisk issue. We suspect the former, but regardless who's to blame, the drive isn't fit for purpose on the Windows side of the house.
SanDisk Extreme Pro with USB4 review - More of the same, more of the speed
The original SanDisk Extreme Pro was marketed as a great tool for content creators on the move. Now, as before, it's a slim drive, highly portable, and fast. In the new version, the addition of USB4 makes it an even more invaluable drive for that body of users.
SanDisk knew that it didn't need to make many changes to its drive at all and still offer an excellent product. What it did change was externally minor, but major speed-wise.
It's a natural progression for the popular drive. Just as with the previous model, there's a lot to like here, and little to really complain about other than being very spendy per terabyte for the performance.
That said, it's a good fast, turnkey solution for users that don't want to be bothered shopping for a fast enclosure and storage.
That said, you can save a lot of money if you shop and build your own.
SanDisk Extreme Pro with USB4 review - Pros
- Same rugged design
- USB4 speeds - all of the time on Mac
SanDisk Extreme Pro with USB4 review - Cons
- Larger than the previous model
- Pricey when compared to other offerings from other manufacturers
- Windows connectivity is profoundly unreliable and slow
The score is assuming a Mac-only environment, and a purchase at retail price. If you need to use it cross-platform to Windows, find something else to buy, for now.
But, on either platform, it's not competitive price-wise with DIY solutions. If you can get the drive for 20% off, that's a better price to performance ratio than what's on offer here.
Where to buy SanDisk Extreme Pro with USB4
The SanDisk Extreme Pro with USB4 is available from the SanDisk online store, starting from $279.99 for 2TB, rising to $429.99 for 4TB. It's also available from Amazon, at the same prices.
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Comments
Then there was the debacle of SanDisk's terrible customer support. So I will not suffer any irrecoverable data loss since I will never own another of their products. The two I have are relegated to ferrying copied content from my computer to my TV. I'll either roll my own or go Samsung.
I don't have anything against WD for spinning drives. (I've never used their SSDs.) They're actually my go-to, and of around 20 I've managed on a daily basis in the last decade or so, all have lived a long and happy life. But those portable Sandisk SSDs.... oof.